Download everything in higher quality

Don’t put up with substandard quality in videos, music and photos. Robert Irvine reveals how and where to download the optimum versions of digital files

Stop Hackers Locking Your PC & Phone

The criminals behind ransomware are finding ever more devious ways to lock your files. Wayne Williams explains how to protect your devices from the latest threats, and recover from an attack

Ransomware first hit the headlines a few years ago as one of the nastiest types of malware yet, taking control of a victim’s computer, encrypting their files and extorting money to remove it. Sadly, in recent months, the threat of ransomware has grown worse – much worse, in fact. Not only has it spread from PCs to phones, tablets and Macs, but there has been a massive increase in the number of instances of ransomware detected. Moreover, the methods that hackers use have become more devious and more difficult to deal with.

10 Of The Best Podcasting Apps

Sarah Dobbs finds all the apps and programs you need for everything podcast-related

It’s hard to pinpoint the moment when podcasts went from being a niche interest to a standard part of the media landscape. Was it when President Bush’s radio broadcasts got an online feed in 2005? When Ricky Gervais launched The Ricky Gervais Show in 2006? When Kevin Smith launched his SModcast in 2007? It might even have been as recently as 2014, when Sarah Koenig’s Serial became the new thing you had to keep up to date with in order to keep up with the conversation in the pub.

Pre-Built Vs Self-Made

Mark Pickavance discusses the various merits of buying a PC either in bits or pre-assembled

I’m come clean up front and admit that, with the obvious exception of laptop systems, I’ve built all my computers from scratch. My reasons for doing that are numerous, but given the job I’ve got, it would seem to fly in the face of logic to buy them pre-made, with all the parts in them chosen by someone else.

If I had to put a number on it, I’ve probably built somewhere between 50 and 100 machines, so I’ve got the exercise down to a fine art that I can complete rapidly and with a high degree of success.

TP-Link Archer VR900

A fast Wi-Fi router for ADSL lines

A couple of years ago, the prevailing Wi-Fi standard moved on from 802.11n to 802.11ac. It’s theoretically faster, uses the less crowded 5GHz band, and has better range, so you should get decent reception over a wider area. Meanwhile, the ADSL broadband connections available over the phone lines to our homes moved up to VDSL, allowing internet service providers (ISPs) to run fast fibre-optic cables to the cabinet in the street and just use the copper wires for the last few yards.